Defensive Class
by destiniex
Summary: Discontinued. .... one day i might take this up again.
1. incident in the great hall

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and co :D **

**Chapter one: incident in the great hall**

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"… Now you may begin our lovely feast that the house elves have kindly prepared for us." Was all Hermione Granger heard from Dumbledors beginning-of-the-year speech. She had been thinking about her last year at Hogwarts and her N.E.W.T.S, which she had already begun to study for; she had actually started in her 5th year. Of course everyone this year would be studying along with her, instead of complaining at her and telling her to come outside and get her nose out of her books once in a while.

"'Mione, 'mione, HERMIONE!"

"Ron do not shout at me, and try not spiting half your food at me next time you have to." Hermione scolded Ron; who now had his mouth wide open and was staring at her in shock. Everyone who was around then was laughing at Ron's look of utter disbelief.

"Ron shut your mouth and swallow your food it's disgusting!"

"Merlin Grange, what's got your knickers in a twist? I thought you loved being at school and with your precious boyfriends" The snarling voice from behind her. Hermione turned around to see the grinning face of the only platinum blonde boy who she hated in the whole world.

"Shut it Malfoy I'm not in the mood to deal with you at the moment." She snapped at Draco Malfoy. _Not that I ever am in the mood to deal with that snobby git!_ She added as an afterthought to herself.

When 10 seconds had passed and Malfoy still hadn't made a comeback she thought something was wrong. _He normally takes any chance he can get to call me a mudblood or to make fun of me. _It was only as Hermione started to turn around that she noticed everyone on Griffindor and the Slytherin table was staring at her. She was about to ask what the hell they were all looking at but someone was about to answer her question even before she had asked it.

"Erm Hermione that new necklace that your wearing who gave it to you? 'Cause it's kind of um … well its glowing" Harry said to her in a shaky voice. Her hand immediately shot up to her neck and around the golden chain she was wearing. It contained her time-turner but it was transfigured into a plain ordinary golden locket. She slowly looked down at it and saw that it actually was glowing; a sickly purple colour. Quickly standing up she ripped the necklace from around her and held it in the palm of her hand. By now everyone in the hall was looking at her, including the whole staff table, nobody could see the locket except from the Slytherins and Griffindors. Her mind was racing and her mouth opened.

"Oh my god." Were the last whispered words to come from her before she disappeared from the great hall and left everyone stunned.

Blinking his eyes Draco Malfoy asked a logical question for the first time in his life. "What happened to Granger?" and then all hell broke loose in a matter of seconds.

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Ok so that was chapter one... Few!

Review if you want to  
XX dennie XX


	2. thats a big shock

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and co :D **

**Chapter two: that's a big shock**

* * *

Recap:

"_Erm Hermione that new necklace that your wearing who gave it to you? 'Cause it's kind of erm … well its glowing" … "Oh my god." Were the last whispered words that came from Hermione's mouth before she disappeared from the great hall and left everyone stunned._

"_Wow what happened to granger?"_

* * *

"So Padfoot what are you going to do this year?" James potter asked his long time best friend Sirius black.

"I was thinking about Carmen she looks hot this year don't you think?" he said staring at the girl at the next table, who had long blond hair down to her mid back with stunning blue eyes and perfect colour skin. All in all she was the same as every other Vela. She was a human Barbie doll.

"Padfoot why ask me a dumb-ass question like that? You know I only have eyes for one woman" he said as he put his arm around the slim red head next to him.

"Isn't that right Lilly?"

"If you don't get your arm off me this minute ill hex you into the next century James potter." she said with irritation in her voice. Warning signals went off in prongs mind not to push it any further.

"Prongs mate when are you going to give up? She's never going to go out with you, I would have thought you'd figured that one out, after about a year and half of rejection." The sandy blond boy next to Sirius said to his friend.

"Remus you how long have you known me? About 8 years I think if my memory serves me well. In eight years have you ever known me to chase a girl for longer than 2 weeks?"

"No" the boy called Remus replied.

"Well then I would have thought you would have figured out that if I ever do, like I am now, it would be because I love the woman." James told one of his best friends a critical bit of information without actually saying it at all.

"Oh." Was all he could say.

* * *

As Severus was walking toward the great hall doors he saw that those annoying little Marauders were talking in hushed tones then seeing them stop and look at each other in shock he thought; _I wonder what they were talking about to make that bloody werewolf so shocked? Why do I even care?_ _Oh great now they're all looking at me. Just keep walking and ignore them._

"Hey Snivellus. I see that you didn't take our advice and get that nose of yours fixed over the holidays." James said casually to the hook nosed greasy haired bastard.

"Potter. Why would I take your advice and fix something that doesn't need to be fixed?" Severus spat at him with pure hatred oozing in every word that he spoke.

"Yeah right" came the sarcastic grunt of a certain Mr Black.

"Shut it black and piss off." Severus started to walk away only to be knocked down by a big bush of brown golden locks in front of him that appeared out of nowhere.

"Oomph."

"Ahh" she squealed before the two figures landed on top of each in a very ungraceful position with the greasy bat on top of her. It took Severus a little while to notice that it was actually a person beneath him.

"Ow, my hip. Get off your on my hip!" that was all it took for him to jump up and get off the poor girl. He looked down and she looked up then she suddenly jumped to her feet faster than anyone he had ever seen.

_Oh my god is that Snape? He looks so young. Where am I? _She then looked round and saw three people that should be dead her old professor and one person that she hated beyond belief. Then she turned around to her other professor and fainted into his arms.

* * *

Just re done my spelling mistakes ... if you see anymore please tell me about them. Much appreciated.

Xx Dennie xX -13/7/08

P.S. - Three people that should be dead : Sirius Black, Lily Evans, James Potter  
Her old professor : Remus Lupin  
The one person she hates : Peter Pettigrew  
her other professor: Severus Snape (Duh!)


	3. what there is to know about me

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and co :D **

**Chapter Two: What There Is To Know About Me.**

_

* * *

_

Recap:

'_Oh my god is that Snape? He looks so young. Where am I? She then looked round and saw three people that should be dead her old professor and two people that she hated beyond belief. Then she turned around to her other professor and fainted into his arms.'_

* * *

"She should have woken up two hours ago but as you can see headmaster, she clearly hasn't. Her body seems to be in shock but I don't know what could have been such a big shock that she won't allow herself to be woken. I've tried every single spell and potion that I can think of, but nothing seems to work. I suppose she'll just wake up when she wants to." Poppy Pomfrey told the headmaster.

"Ok, thank you for trying anyway Poppy. I just wonder who she is and what shocked her so much." Albus mused out loud.

"Hermione Granger, sir." The two adults spun round to see that the young girl was sitting up staring at them. Apparently they had been too busy talking to notice that she had woken up.

"Merlin girl, don't scare me like that" Madame Pomfrey said to Hermione after the shock had worn off.

"Sorry Madame Pomfrey" the Mediwitch stared at her for a moment; curious as to how the new arrival knew her name. Forgetting about it and turned her attention back to checking Hermione over with her wand.

"Hermione Granger did you say?" Hermione nodded "I don't believe I know of you Miss Granger"

"You won't sir because I'm … um actually could I speak to you in privet please sir?" she asked when she noticed that Madame Pomfrey was still next to her. She wasn't exactly sure of things herself but her mind had put two and two together and come to some conclusion.

"Of course you may Miss Granger. Poppy is Miss Granger well enough to come with me to my office for a quick talk?"

"Of course she can't leave!" Madame Pomfrey shrieked at the head master in utter shock of such a stupid question. "The poor girl has just woken up from a 3 hour black out and from shock no less. If she goes with you she might collapse on the way"

"I won't honestly, I feel fine."

"There you go poppy, even Hermione here says she feels fine and I think we can trust her to tell us the truth. Don't you?"

"Oh fine she can go with you but if she comes back to me looking worse it will be your head that's going to be bitten off. I have warned you!" poppy challenged.

"Duly noted. Are you ready to go Miss Granger?" he asked turning towards the young girl who was now getting out of the hospital bed.

"Yes sir, we have a lot to talk about."

"Well we better go then. Bye poppy, I shall see you tomorrow at breakfast yes?"

"Ok I will go just to see what happened and to see if you lie to me about Miss Granger here."

"Fine with me." Dumbledor said with a chuckle. The Headmaster and Hermione set off down the halls to go to his office. They were half way when they ran into a girl with red hair and stunning green eyes.

"Hello Miss Evans. I believe you've seen Miss Granger all ready?"

"Um yes, I think everyone saw her in the great hall." She said shaking Hermione's hand.

"Where are you off to sir?"

"We are going to have a quick chat in my office, we shall see you later Miss Evans."

"Ok sir. Well I'm going to head to the common room, ill see you later err…"

"Hermione" she supplied for the girl.

"Yeah, I'll see you later 'mione." She said then turned around the corner of the corridor. She stood there for a few minutes and started to follow them wanting to find out more about this Hermione girl. Her curiosity always got the better of her.

"That is our very own head girl, Miss Lily Evans."

"She seems nice."

"Oh she is very smart as well; she's perfect to be the head girl and so that's why she is. Oh here we are. Pear drops." He said and they both watched as the stone statue of a gargoyle sprung aside to reveal stairs that Hermione knew lead to his office. They went up in silence not noticing the girl waiting at the bottom for them to disappear. After a minute Lily said the password and went up to put her ear to the locked door that lead to his office.

"So Miss Granger please have a seat and tell me this interesting story that you wish me to know about."

"Well first things first. What's the date sir?" she questioned. With a bewildered look on his face he answered

"1977"

"Round about what I thought then." She said mainly to herself rather than the man sitting before her. "Well this is what happened…" she sprang to life while he sat contently and listened to her every word. When she was done telling him all about what happened all he done was nod and say

"Well I guess you will be here for quite some time then wont you?" not waiting for a answer he continued on "I guess you will have to be sorted tomorrow. You'll also need to make up a story as to why you are here, perhaps Miss Evans can help you with that."

Hermione nearly had a fit at his words. "What! I can't tell her shell probably think I'm crazy!" was her spluttered response.

"I'm sure she won't and you don't have to worry about telling her, because she already knows." Hermione heard what sounded suspiciously like a head banging against the door from outside the room. "You can come in Miss Evans!" Dumbledor called. The young girl came into the room looking very apologetic.

"Sorry sir, I was just curious as to whom she was and I needed to find out more. Sorry"

"That's quite alright Miss Evans. This is quite a good situation really because now Miss Granger here won't have to go through this whole ordeal alone." He said looking at the two young women before him.

"Um, yeah, sure." Was all Hermione said. Dumbledor clapped his hands together and walked over to his door, opened and said

"Right well I'm sure you two have a lot to do Miss Granger you will be staying in the room of requirement for tonight only, then tomorrow you will move into your houses common room after you have been sorted."

"Sure, can Lilly stay with me?" she asked with a hopeful look in her eyes, going from Lily to Dumbledor. She would hate to stay alone in the middle of the castle all night.

"Of course she can." He replied.

"Great" they both said. Laughing at their unified response the girls walked from the room.

"You two are going to be great friends, I can tell" Dumbledor said to them as they walked away, the only reply he got was the smiles on their faces. After he shut the door behind the girls he sat at his desk with a worried look on his face and made a mental not to keep an eye the girl, there was something that was wrong about her but for the life of him he couldn't figure it out. Shoving the thoughts to one side he set to work trying to think of a plausible cover story for her. He'd leave them to their own devices but he still wanted to push her in the right direction.

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Chapter re-vamped. It only took me 3 years. ... That's sad I know.

Xx Dennie xX


	4. The cover story

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and company. **

**Chapter four: The cover story **

* * *

The two girls had been in the room of requirement for 5 minutes when they both decided that the questioning could wait till tomorrow. Hermione was too tired at the moment; her body felt like a lead weight she was so sleepy. And Lily was more than happy to get some rest saying it would be beneficiary to both of them.

"Oh Merlin's knickers this is so weird. I'll have to introduce you to the boys tomorrow I bet they will die when hear about you." Lily gave a little squeak of excitement pulling back the cover from her make shift bed beside Hermione's, and snuggling into it.

"No. You can't. I mean I would rely appreciate it if you kept what you know about me between just us two." Hermione locked her eyes with Lily's begging her to agree, she didn't want them to know, not now at least. if ever. Lily nodded her head in understanding; she couldn't image what she would be like in Hermione's shoes at the moment. Broken down into tears probably. Hermione felt the momentary panic lift from her heart. She knew that she'd have to have people she could trust around her but for now lily would be more than enough. She'd rather gain others trust by herself and by her own devices, how hard could it be? They were exactly the same as her, right? She pulled her unruly mass of hair into a bun and crawled into bed.

"Goodnight Lily." She whispered. The only response she got from the other girl was the sound of her even breathing that only came with sleep. Hermione fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, but not before a stray thought weaved its way to the front of her mind. _She wasn't like everybody else in this Hogwarts__._

* * *

The next morning Hermione awoke to the pounding of her head and the feeling of sickness in her stomach. She gave an outward groan that seemed to set of lily's inner mind and she sat up bolt right and stared directly at her with a look of confusion then recognition on her face.

"Good morning Hermione" came the cheery notes of her voice.

"Morning Lily" she responded deliberately leaving out the good part. For it wasn't good, because she felt like shit to be honest. She supposed that time travelling long periods of time wasn't exactly healthy for you. She made a mental note to look up on it later. Taking a deep breath and gathering her wits around her she pulled herself out of bed and grabbed a pile of folded clothes from the bottom of her bed. They must have appeared last night. And looked around noticing lily was doing the same she realised they were both looking for the bathroom. She let out a little giggle.

"Room of requirement my ..." lily turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "Indeed" she agreed.

"I don't suppose there will be anybody in the prefect bathroom just yet, we could just pop down there." She suggested knowing that it was barely 6 o'clock from clock that was on the opposite wall. Lily spoke her agreement and of they strode down the corridor in their pyjamas.

* * *

Hermione followed lily into the great hall for breakfast where most of the students sat eating away at their poached eggs on toast. She looked around and gave a sigh and stood where she was Lily had already walked off but turned around when she noticed she was alone. With a frown etched into her glowing face she opened her mouth to speak but Hermione got there first.

"I don't know where to sit; I haven't been sorted into a house yet" she could see the deflation in lily's eyes. Somehow the girl already counted her as a Griffindor, as a friend. The two had spent ages in the prefects' bathroom just talking. Nobody had come in while they were in there so they had both be free to talk without discretion. It was then that Hermione had realised lily needed her as much as she needed lily. The thought that they might not be in the same house hadn't crossed their minds till now. Hermione was brought out of her revive as she was hit hard in the shoulder by someone. Turning to her left and saw him walking for his table without a glance back at her.

"Don't worry about him; I'll fill you in on that bit of information later." Lily said from in front of her. Hermione barely registered her words and before she knew it she was being dragged by her arm to sit beside lily at her table.

"Hello everyone." Lily was slightly put out when she didn't get any response. She noticed everybody was staring at Hermione. "This is Hermione; she's a new transfer this year. She came in yesterday because she couldn't come any earlier. She's going to sit with us for a while until Headmaster Dumbledor gets her sorted." Hermione gave everyone a nod and received their outstretched hands. "Pleasure to meet you" she told them, until it came to peter then she just stared at his hand with a disgusted look that was plain as day to anyone who noticed. Begrudgingly she took it when Lily had elbowed her in the ribs.

Sirius black leaned across the table, she nearly choked when she saw his grin, it reminded her so much of the Sirius she used to know. "So Hermione was it?" when she gave him a quick nod he proceeded. "Where is it that you join us from?" Her mind flashed back to the cover story that Lily and she had invented this morning, with a little owl of help from Dumbledor of course.

"Beauxbatons" was her quick answer. From Sirius's look of disbelief she knew what his next question was going to be and answered him before he asked. "I was born in England but went to school in France because; well it was my parents' choice. That's why I speak perfect English. Obviously I can also speak fluent French among other languages."

"Why are you here now then? Parents have a sudden change of heart? Or did you decide to come here yourself? Rebellious teen, your parents must hate it." She gave him what she hoped was a sad smile and tried to make her eyes water by pinching herself under the table.

"They died." She saw James wince at his friends' mistake and thought so much in that moment that he looked like harry wincing at Ron whenever he stuck his foot in it. She felt a real tear fall from her eye and land gently on her cheek. She quickly pushed her grief down and flicked the tear from her cheek.

Remus had been listening to their conversation and all at once his mind flicked back to the paper a 

few weeks ago. "Sorry but what did you say your last name was?" Hermione turned to his handsome face and gave him a small smile she fought down the urge to say Granger.

"Moreau" Several things happened at once when the words left her mouth. Peter who had apparently been listening very intently nearly fell off the bench, Sirius muttered a colourful string of curse words dropping his fork onto the floor, James sat gaping at her looking like a fish, a few others around them backed away from her their eyes twitching, Remus just retreated back to being quiet and Hermione knew that eventually he'd figure things out but for now the story would hold, it had to. Before anybody could speak the booming voice of Dumbledor crashed into her ears silencing everybody.

"I do apologise for interrupting your morning breakfast but we have a new transfer student who joined us last night and needs to be sorted immediately." Hermione turned to face Lily, her eyes wide and panicked. They both just presumed that he would sort her into a house in his office not in front of the whole school. It was bad enough when she had to do it the first time round, but making her sit through that again was just going to be excruciating. "I hope you will all join me in welcoming Miss Hermione Moreau to Hogwarts to finish out her last year of school."

Hermione could feel the excitement buzz around the room at the news. Dumbledors plan that this cover would keep other students off her back was obviously not going to work. She'd be centre of gossip for weeks now. _Blasted man_, she thought and gave the man the coldest eyes she could afford but he was still smiling. She felt Lily's hand push her up towards the front of the hall; where the hat was waiting. _Let's just get this whole thing over with._

With every eye in the room on her she hesitantly sat on the stool and felt the hat paced on her head. Its voice rang through her mind and she could feel it trying to read her soul.

_"Moreau is it? I don't think so, you're certainly not the pure breed type now are you?"  
"No, but it's necessary. Otherwise I wouldn't have a thing to do with this ridiculous affair."  
"Well fortunately for you I don't require a life's story, what's in your heart and soul will do. Loyal to your friends, brave, underhanded when the situation calls for it, craves for knowledge. There's something else here and I don't understand why it resides in you. So young, so innocent. Nobody should have their soul darkened by things they've seen, disfigured by a war that's not thiers to fight."_ It was all Hermione could do not to break into hysterical sobs at that very moment.  
"I'm sorry dear; you must forgive this old hat for rambling. I know exactly where you belong..."

Her heart was making it was to her stomach in dread when the hat screamed_ "... Griffindor!"  
"Thank you" she told it before it was removed from her head. "Thank you." _

* * *

So ... I thought I'd start up this story again ... because I'm nice like that and my other story has me totally blocked!  
I figured that this way I'm at least getting some creativity out there.

Anyways as always ... review XX dennie XX


	5. The Cover Story 2 and Family Type

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and company. **

**Chapter five: the cover story 2/Family Type**

* * *

No wild clapping met her ears at the announcement only the feeble sounds of lily's clap, which abruptly stopped when she realised nobody else was clapping. Her relief rapidly disappeared. Everybody was whispering to each other and pointing at her. Even the slytherins were giving her confused and sneering looks. _Maybe I should have asked the hat to place me in Slytherin, that's what they were obviously expecting from a Moreau. After all I am one of them if only by name. _Ignoring them she lowered herself from the stool and walked back to her seat, head held high with false confidence.

"This is great Hermione, At last now I'll have a girl in my dorm that isn't a brain dead zom... Sorry Jess, Darla" Lily quickly apologised when she noticed the other girls giving her death glares. "Anyway ..." the rest of what Lily said fell on deaf ears as everybody else drowned her out trying to ask Hermione questions.

"Are you really...? I can't believe that you're... why are you in our house? You're ... I never thought in a million years that I'd meet ..." the voices were all directed at her and they all seemed to end in "... a Moreau" Letting out a small sigh she realised that this is what her life would be like for the next week or so. _I'm going to kill Dumbledor and his ruddy cover story._ She thought with no real feeling.

Turning to face lily with a pleading look in her eyes she begged silently for her help, and thank Merlin that the green eyed beauty understood. "The post will arrive at any moment now, slip out then." When it arrived she did as she was told and slipped discreetly out of the great hall, only to come face to face with professor McGonagall.

"Oh Miss Granger exactly the girl I was looking for. Oh don't worry dear, Albus told me all about your little predicament this morning." She said at Hermione's slack face. "Quite fascinating really isn't it. I hope you know where your boundaries lie though. Time is a dangerous thing to meddle with."

"Yes professor. I know I can't do anything to alter its course, and to be honest I don't think anybody should have that right or opportunity" was her truthful reply. The elderly woman gave her a look of appreciation and handed her an envelope.

"Inside you'll find your timetable and list of extra classes that are available this year. If you have any problems with anything just come and see myself or Albus. Good luck Miss Granger." With that she walked into the great hall but not before giving Hermione a gentle squeeze on her shoulder. She shoved the envelope into her pocket and made her way back to the prefect bathroom.

She fled through the doors into the nearest toilet cubicle and emptied the contents of stomach into the pan (which wasn't much as she hadn't eaten anything at breakfast). The sick feeling from this morning was back; with a vengeance. Wiping her mouth with toilet paper she sat down on the floor 

closing her eyes. When she felt that her stomach was balanced one again she stood up put the toilet seat down and sat on top of it. Pulling the envelope from her pocket she looked over her schedule.

_

* * *

_

Well that was unexpected to say the least.

He thought, and he could tell the others were thinking similar thoughts. His confirmation came in the voice of Lucius Malfoy.

"What the fuck? She's a Moreau! She's supposed to be with us! It's in her blood!" he whispered to Severus and the other seventh years at the Slytherin table.  
"No Malfoy if you had your facts right you'd realise that the Moreau's have chosen to stay on the sidelines in this whole war! And with their money and power you know full well that they have that option. For you with all you treasures have nowhere near what they have, that's why we don't have that option."  
"Be that as it may Severus, she should still be with us on our table, not with them mudbloods and traitors. We'll have to get her to join us somehow. What do we rely know about her family that we can use against her?" Lucius directed that question towards a black haired blue eyes girl sitting beside him.

"Oh well not a lot really, it's a very privet family, I'm surprised as to why she's decided to turn up all of a sudden. Nobody knows exactly how many of their family are left. Although it was reported a while back that one Mr. Moreau and his wife died recently. They are old money, dating back to Salazar himself. Nothing extremely scandalous has ever been know about them, though that could be down to the fact that the gossips who are dumb enough to spread the rumours, tend to not be a gossip for too long, if you know what I mean. That's all I know, and all I want to know, this is not the type of family you want to be in bad graces with Malfoy. In fact you don't want to be in any grace with them." she replied quickly and quietly trying to get the conversation over with, she wanted no part to do with Lucius's plan this time. "I'm warning you Lucius that you want nothing to do with this girl, she more than likely possesses more power in one arse cheek than you do in your entire family."

"Don't be idiotic Ariel. Did you see her? She's pathetic! Shaking in her seat up there, looking like she wanted to piss her pants. She's only one girl, she couldn't touch me." He spat back at the girl, how dare she imply him so weak and inadequate. Severus watched the two exchange filthy looks, he could practically see Lucius's ego taking a good bruising. Even he couldn't be that deluded to believe that he had one up on this Hermione girl.

"I've got to get my things for first lesson." Severus quickly mumbled, before he walked from the great hall and headed towards his room before transfiguration, though he doubted anybody heard him, too caught up in their own pettiness.

* * *

Hermione was just about to walk out of the prefect bathroom when the door crashed open. Her mind went blank for a second while her body just went to automatic drive, slipping her wand from her sleeve into her palm and pointing it strait at ...

"Lily. Flipping hell I nearly hexed you on the spot." She lowered her wand that was pointing straight into her friends head. Lily's eye's still looked the size of cauldrons for a second before she could get her petrified mind to formulate words for her mouth.

"Merlin Hermione, what's got you so on edge? I hope this isn't a normal reaction of yours to point your wand in everybody's face? Anybody would think you're on permanent alert mode." Hermione didn't tell her friend that if she were in her own time then she would be that very thing; it would emit too many questions, questions that she didn't want to answer. "We have to hurry up Hermione or we'll be late for first lesson. What do you have anyway?" she asked grabbing onto her arm and dragging her from the bathroom.

"I have Ancient Runes then Herbology"

"That's wonderful I have Ancient Runes as well thought you'll have to go to Herbology by yourself as I have divination then." Hermione screwed her nose up at that. She never would have put Lily potter down for one who believes in crystal balls and the dreaded Grim. Chuckling slightly she followed the girl into their class.

* * *

Hermione's first day of classes in this time had been an interesting mix, ranging from easy to easier and from cheery to downright ghostly. This was the answer that she gave Lily that night in the girls' dorm while they were scrambling around arranging Hermione's newly bought possessions, all curtsey of Dumbledor and she suspected McGonagall had her input as well.

"Herbology was fine, I worked with a Frank Longbottom, he was so twitchy and nervous, looked petrified that I was going to do something terrible to him. Poor soul, it was really very awkward." She paused while she picked up a pile or underwear and shoved them in a draw. "And you were in potions I mean did you see that boy? What's his name again? Snap? Yeah that's it Snape. All he did was leer at me; well all the slytherins in fact were giving me filthy looks. But that boy; there's something about him that gives me the creeps. Do you know what I mean?" She trusted Lily but she wasn't about to go tell her that she knew grown-up Snape.

Lily frowned to herself. "Look Hermione there's something you should know about the slytherins. They may not be the smartest bunch in the pack but they are powerful and they know their stuff when it comes to magic and will use it to their advantage" They both looked each other in the eye.

"What are you trying to say Lily?"

"I'm just saying that they believe your cover story and well they're obviously annoyed about it, to say the least. They aren't the type to corner you about it in public but they will eventually catch you out and I just want you to know that they're sneaky about this kind of thing. Just be prepared and be sensible, don't go down into the dungeons by yourself or out on the grounds at night alone. You don't know what they're capable of. I'm telling you that they are NOT good people and are DANGEROUS." Lily gave her a pointed look that said what she wasn't and she only hoped Hermione understood. "Do you know what I mean Hermione?"  


"Yes, I know full well what you mean Lily, and believe me I'm not that much of a weakling myself." She replied in an icy voice and slammed some books onto her shelf. Lily was taken aback by it and promised to ask her what she knew about this underestimated brewing war at a later time. She got the sense that she was keeping some things to herself. Nodding mostly to herself they returned to their task.

* * *

"You've got 4 questions left. Now whose turn was it? Ah yes, Sirius, Fire away" Hermione had been roped into playing 21 questions by the boys and Lily, only all 21 questions were directed at her. So far they had learned that green was her favourite colour, much to their annoyance. That she'd only had one real boyfriend, Ron; and that it had been a disaster. Her most loved food was jam sandwiches, that she was as much of a literary freak as a knowledge loving geek. They had also dragged it out of her that the one thing that she regretted in her life so far was not having enough to be a child and be without worries. They hadn't seemed to ask her a thing about her family or anything that could connect to her family.

"Oh, I know. What's your worst fear?" as soon as she heard his question her mind raced with vicious thoughts. _That we all die in this war. That we survive but so many others are dead. That Voldemort manages to manipulate harry and kill him, thus dooming us all._ Swallowing hard she gave them an answer that was acceptable and also true, it just wasn't the truth.

"My worst fear would have to be heights. I'm terrible at them. I've never played a game of Quidditch in my life."

"Whoa. You've got to be..."  
"... kidding me" James finished for Sirius. "Even little peter here can get on a broom. Trust me Hermione you'd love it once you got up there in the sky it's amazing." James seemed to stare off into space with a loving look in his eyes. Hermione felt Lily lean into whisper in her ear.

"If only he put that kind of love and passion into getting a girl he'd be well away." Both girls had to giggle at this. The boys didn't notice how ever as they were wrapped up in talk of Quidditch. Rolling her eyes to the gods, Hermione stood up and bode goodnight to Lily, more than happy to let the boys gossip, and even more happy to escape the last of their questioning.

She was still dreadfully tired even after the sleep she had acquired the previous night. The day must have drained her more than she thought. She'd seem to put most of her energy into trying to block out the long stares other students were giving her, only The Marauders and Lily had seem to have the guts to come near her and engage in talk. If this was what it was going to be like for the rest of her time here then Hermione wasn't sure for how much longer she could hack it. She knew she was playing the role of practical royalty but it just wasn't in her character to be a snob and accept people's jealousy. She let out a very unattractive snort at that thought. _Who would have thought I'd ever see the day when people were jealous of me.  
_

After she had finished changing into her night shirt she pulled the covers back from her new bed. she slipped into it and felt the mattress melt around her, moulding itself to her body shape. She lay there only to fall into a fitful sleep seconds later.

* * *

Some Snapey/Granger (Moreau) interaction in the next chapter.

Review if you so wish to.

Oh and it's nothing big but I did Redo the other chapters – just the spelling mistakes and clumsy errors, no story line changes

Xx Dennie xX


	6. The Forbidden Apple Tree

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and company. **

**Chapter Six: Forbidden Apple Tree**

* * *

At breakfast the next morning she got much the same feeling as yesterday. That feeling was that everyone seemed to be trying to burn holes through her back, with their eyes. She looked down at her plate of untouched, but pushed around, bacon egg and waffles. Deciding that she should at least eat something she stabbed her fork at the waffle and cut off a bit. She was just about to bite into it when she heard a voice from opposite her.

"So Hermione, what classes have you got today?" she looked at Remus. It was the first time he'd actually tried to talk to her since she told him who she was. Yes he'd asked her a few questions last night but even that had been an awkward affair. She gave him what she hoped was a friendly smile trying to encourage him.

"I have first period free, then charms, after dinner double Defence Against the Dark Arts. I'm going to do some research in the Library for first. What about you Remus?"

"Practically the same. So this will be your first Dark Arts lesson?" after her hesitant nod he continued "I bet you'll be right at home wont you? You'll be the top of thee class in no time."

"Wh... What makes you say that?" she replied tenderly. She didn't like where he was taking this conversation.

"Well it makes sense doesn't it? I bet you even know more on the darks than Malfoy over there, and he's a right bastard. You being who you are and all I mean, it's a given that you would." Hermione could feel Lily's leg move to kick Remus under the table to stop him from proceeding. Hermione grabbed her napkin she wiped the corners of her mouth with false grace.

"I think that you don't know me at all Remus Lupin and it would serve you well if you didn't go presuming things about me. But seeing as you so easily pushed me into a stereotype, then you'll find out exactly what I can do with the dark arts." She whispered the last part with hatred, thought she couldn't distinguish if she was forcing that hatred or if in the moment she truly felt it. She honestly never thought that Remus could be so pretentious and nasty. "I'm sorry you'll have to excuse me, I've suddenly lost my appetite." With those words she got up and walked away from the table. She could faintly hear the sounds of an outburst by Lily directed at Remus. From the corner of her eye she saw that the Slytherin table was looking at her. She turned to face them, a light bulb went off in her head and she walked up to the seventh years.

"Excuse me. Would you mind terribly if I grabbed an Apple? My table seems to be lacking in Apples" she looked directly into Malfoys eyes trying to convey that if he didn't hand her an apple right now she'd cut his hand off. She could practically see the clogs churning in his head, and his eyes light up with something akin to favour.

* * *

"You don't even have to ask princess. Have anything that you want." She leaned over towards him and he passed her the nearest apple. He held onto it for a few seconds longer, even though it was already in her palm. By purpose he tried to lock his eyes with hers but she blinked to break it.

"I'll keep that in mind" It nearly killed her to not say thank you and scamper away, but this was what she had to be. As she leaned away, taking the apple with her she looked to the boy sitting next to Malfoy. His dark eyes had been on her throughout the exchange, and now she could see the curious look in them. She gave him what she hoped was mischievous grin and nodded. She felt his eyes follow her out of the hall where she promptly chucked the apple in the bin; she was sure he saw that too.

"It seems that we might not have to do all that much work" With a nod towards the Gryffindor table Lucius continued "if they keep brushing her the wrong way." A loud snort came from his left. "What? What you possible have to pick at now Ariel?" She gave the blond hair boy a strong glare.

"She asked for an apple Lucius. It was hardly a pledge to commit herself with us now was it?"

"Ah my dear Ariel, Where you see an apple I see an opportunity. Bit by bite she'll see how much sweeter things are with us."

"She's not taking any bites of your apple Malfoy. It was just a show to fool around her Griffindors." Severus decided to put in his wand, inadvertently breaking up an argument between the couple.

"Well it would help if either of you two shit lickers would put in a bit of effort. How do you expect her to join us if she can see that we're not a united front? And how do you think we'll look when our lord gets word of what's happening." Malfoy talked in a low even tone so only they could hear, but they both still caught the threat and malice in his words.

Ariel shook her head "It's hopeless and maybe in time you'll see that, but for now we'll do as you will and try to encourage her towards us." The girl looked from Severus to Lucius and they all nodded. Their agreement was unnoticed by every person left in the hall, but the doubt in Ariel's words hadn't gone past unnoticed by Severus. He made a mental note to keep an eye on her.  
"I'll see you later in class." He grumbled and with that he swept from the table and from the hall to go find the object of thier talk.

* * *

Hermione was in-between the bookcases of the library when she felt a presence behind her. Assuming that it was lily coming to explain Remus's actions she started talking before they had a chance.

"look Lily I don't care if he's sorry or is having an off day, it's just not right to presume that I'm some crazed lunatic who's whole life revolves around the dark arts! How would he like it if I went round telling everybody he's a blood thirsty ..." she turned around to face a raven haired onyx eyed boy, not the red haired green eyed girl she was expecting. Severus raised one eyebrow at her and finished her sentence with a hint of a laugh.

"Werewolf?" she stared at him as if he caught on fire and she couldn't do anything to help. "Now how pray tell, would you know about that?" he asked and she seemed to be shaken from her shock. Grabbing him by the arm she hauled him into a corner. His eyes shot the spot where her small hand was still wrapped firmly around his forearm. He could almost feel the smoothness of her skin through his robes. His eyes rested back to her face when she started talking.

"Shhh! don't go shouting it from the hill tops! Merlin have mercy if anybody heard that then I'll cut off your ... Wait a minute. How do you know that he's a... you know? " she gave him a pointed look but he didn't shy away, he just levelled up to her.

"Tell me how you know and I'll tell you how I know." Hermione gave him the once over, she couldn't tell him. She knew him. Knew what kind of man he was. _But he's only a boy at the moment Hermione._ She told herself but regardless she wasn't going to tell him of all people.

"No." Figuring that if he hadn't told anybody by now then he wasn't going to start just because she knew too, she pushed pass him and made her way back to the book shelf she needed. It only took Severus a moment to follow after her; she rolled her eyes when she saw him walking towards her.

"What do you want? I haven't got time to listen to deal with you, Snape wasn't it? Yes I remember from potions yesterday." She thought that she was becoming quite the actor when it came to the little things; trying to 'remember' people's names and so forth.

"Yes it is, and what makes you think I want something from you?" he replied trying to read her facial expressions. She tried to hide it well, but he could still see and it was as if she was trying too hard to act a certain way. People were surprising him all over the place today.

"You wouldn't have found me if you didn't want something from me." She replied absently as she tried to pull down a book. Severus watched her stretching her height on tiptoes to reach it. Without thinking he reached up and grabbed it with ease and passed it to her. She looked from him to the outstretched book and back again, it was then that he realised what he'd done. Hesitantly she took it from him but not before he'd got a look at the title. _'The After Effects'. _The look on his face told her that he'd seen and her mind went into panic mode. She walked away from him without saying thanks and without knowing why he'd sought her out.

He looked after her but didn't follow, positive in the fact that they'd bump into each other again. He walked from the aisle to look for study material, it didn't fall on blind eyes that he'd found her in the 'Travel' section.

Dinner had been an awkward affair to say the least, Remus had made an apology, albeit a forced one and only at the second kick he'd received from Lily. But on the up side Hermione had managed to eat half a sandwich and now she felt sick as she sat in defence. Lily had wanted her to go to the nurse but she waved it off as a bit of home sickness. Lily accepted than and gave her a sympathetic rub on the back, inadvertently making her feel worse.

* * *

"Quiet down, quiet down." Was the gruff voice of Professor Gordon. When he had the attention of the class he continued. "Good. Now for the next few lessons we're going to be studying Bogart's." Hermione let out a little groan at this, which in turn caught the attention of the professor. "Is there something wrong Miss Moreau?"

"No sir. It's just that at my old school we learnt about Bogart's in our third year." _Actually one of your students taught me about Bogart's sir, so it's possible that I know what you're going to say even before you say it ._she didn't say it but she defiantly thought it.

"Well the, you'll just have to sit through my class and listen while everybody else learns. Is that okay with you?" was his sarcastic and demeaning reply. Hermione had the good sense to keep her mouth shut and just nod.

It had already been an hour when Hermione zoned back into what the man was saying, something about real laughter and not fake laughter. The bell rang to signal the end of the period and he suddenly stopped talking about Bogart's. Hermione's ears peaked up and listened.

"I'll see you tomorrow for lesson, and don't forget to bring your books. Have a good time in Defensive class." Hermione saw people packing up around her and start to mill out of the room. She grabbed hold of her bag and caught Lily's arm.

"What's going on? I thought we had a double lesson? And what is 'Defenders class?'" she asked all in a rush. Lily looked at her as thought she'd gone crazy and then it seemed to click in her mind.

"Its 'de-fen-sive class' Hermione and I'm sorry, I thought somebody would have told you about it, that's why I didn't. We have it as the other half of DADA double lessons. It's only for years 6 & 7 so it's reasonably safe for everyone involved. The teachers tell us it's only so we get a bit of diversity in our lessons, and we'll have a better chance of passing our exam if we put what we learn in class into action. But most of us think it's so we know how to defend ourselves when it all comes to a steaming head with 'you-know-who'. Do you know what I mean Hermione?" While Lily was speaking they had made it down to the great hall and were in there with every other house from years 6 and 7 just like Lily had said. Hermione repeater what she'd just been told in her head and just then registered Lily's question? Did she understand? She looked round once again, and it all dawned on her.

"Dumbledors Army." She whispered to herself, Lily heard her and gave her a bemused look.

"Oh no, this isn't Dumbledors army" she watched lily spread out her arms signalling to everyone gathered "this is his first line of defence, should we ever come under attack." Anybody else would have been horrified to find out that students were mere pawns in battle, but all Hermione could think was how they should have this in her time. She felt something move behind her and snake an arm round her shoulders.

"Just watch out for Gibbons, he's one of the teachers, a right old pervert that one. Never fear though I shall protect you from his wandering hands and eyes." She scoffed at Sirius and shook his arm from her body.

"What only to be replaced by yours? I think I'd rather take my chances with hexing his whatsit off, and don't think you're any exception if you try it Sirius black." She said, knowing full well she could never hurt the roguish boy.

"Oh you do so turn me on when you talk dirty Hermione." He made a big show of giving her sexy bedroom eyes.

"Right everybody stop your waffling so we can get started. Seventh years welcome back and sixth years welcome. Now just for those of you who haven't had a defensive lesson before let me just give you a quick introduction. My name is Fletcher and this is my partner Gibbons, we're here to give you time to have some practical defence lessons. It will be hosted every week at the same time. It is a mandatory class but we want you to be relaxed and I don't want to hear any of this 'Sir' business okay? Just have fun with it. At the end of each class we will have a duel hosted between two of you all. So that's it in a nutshell, is everybody clear? Yes? Right then Gibbons will be looking after the seventh years and I'll be looking after the sixth. Lovely." With that Fletcher jumped off the platform where he stood and ushered his group towards the back end of the hall.

Once Gibbons, who actually didn't look anything like a gibbon; he was rather handsome Hermione found, had sorted their year into smaller groups he instructed them on what to do.  
"Today we will recap with what we did last year. Would anybody like to suggest anything? Oh, Mary my love you look fabulous. What do you suggest?" he asked the blonde girl who was now bright red. Hermione fought the urge to roll her eyes at it all, she lost.

"I was thinking maybe we could revise the delusional curse?" replied the girl in a voice so tiny Hermione strained to hear her.

"What a splendid idea! Now can everybody remember the movements?" Hermione was about to say that she didn't know this one when he continued on regardless. "Circle and flick, Got it? Circle and flick." She practiced it and few times and was confident that she'd got the movement perfect. From the corner of her eye she saw the man walking towards her with a maniacal grin on his face. _Oh this should be interesting_; she straightened up to face him. He stretched out his hand towards her

"Hello, I don't believe we've met before? My name's Gibbons." She looked from his hand to his face, and ignoring his hand she replied with a quick nod.

"Hermione." There was an awkward moment where his hand just hung there. He soon shook it off and went into teaching mode.

"Right well, how about I help you out here. Now it's a simple movement once you pick it up." He moved behind her and ran his hand down the length of her arm till he got to her wrist. She could feel the bile rise from her stomach at his movements and fought hard to keep it down. She saw Sirius give Gibbons a cold look but she shook her head at him before he could make a move towards them.

"Circle and flick" She felt Gibbons Hot breath on her neck as he told her what to do while moving her hand. It amazed her that this man couldn't hear the alarm bells going off around her head. She felt his hand move to her lower back, that was when her body and mind went onto 'auto pilot'. The next thing she registered in her mind was looking down at Gibbons in a fragile state on the floor with 

what looked like a broken arm and nose. She also noticed her wand pointing at his chest where his heart lay.

"Touch me with that hand one more time and you'll never see it again. M'kay pumpkin." Hermione felt rather than herd her mouth form the words as she gave him a bright smile, lowered her wand, and brushed off the invisible dust from her robes. Fletcher pushed past her and knelt beside Gibbons. After giving him the once over and mending his bones with a simple charm he got up and stared her dead in the eyes.

"Don't ever attempt to fight with myself or Gibbons again young girl. Do you hear me?" Hermione nearly burst out laughing at his attempt of superiority. Feeling rather rebellious she talked back.

"Quite frankly I'd do it again if I had the chance. It should teach the pervert for feeling up young girls." She looked Fletcher in the eyes "Besides we're here to learn how to fight in battle, and in battle we don't get told we're going to be attacked, it just happens. Obviously you forgot to mention that slight detail to slime bag over there." She finished with a nod towards Gibbons; who was trying to find his footing again.

"Fancy ourselves quite the little fighter do you Miss Moreau?" he quirked an eyebrow, challenging her. "How about you give us a little duel then? Any specific person you'd like to fight." She was about to decline but her mind flashed back to this morning. She turned to face Remus; she saw a look of panic cross his eyes. She wasn't going to duel Remus, he'd be too easy to easy to beat because after all he was the one who taught her every trick she knew. She needed a challenge, somebody who could match her point for point. She started walking towards Remus, leaned into to his ear.

"I hope this answers your question Remus Lupin, and I'm telling you now that what I'm about to show you I learnt from a good man. Used by the right person all magic can be good." She walked away from him and over to Malfoy. "Lucius Malfoy I hope you'll do me the great honour of accepting my challenge to a duel." She gave the arrogant blonde a quick curtsy, playing up to her role of wizard nobility. Lucius took a minute as he tried to work out her game, figuring that it was harmless he nodded is acquiescence. He took off his robe and laid it down on a chair, she did the same and tied her hair up in a bun. They were about to ascend the steps to the platform, when Hermione turned to Fletcher.

"Rules?" was her simple question. She saw him look from Malfoy back to her and he shook his head. "Are you saying anything goes?" this time Fletcher looked to Gibbons who nodded his consent, evidently wanting Malfoy to embarrass Hermione for what she'd done to him.

"No 'Unforgivables'. As long as you don't kill each other then it's fine." She saw Malfoys Evil grin from the corner of her eye, she'd soon wipe it straight off his face. "We're going to cast a protection sphere around you that stops stray spells. Then you may begin" Hermione turned to Malfoy and gave him another curtsy while he bowed to her. They turned and walked to opposite ends of the platform and waited for Gibbons and Fletcher to finish the protection spell.

"Expelliarmus!" Lucius Shouted Towards her. She put a protection spell around her to stop it. "Incarcerous" Again she used the protection spell to stop it.

"Come on Malfoy I wanted a duel, not kids play."

"Oh but I wouldn't want to hurt you my love"

"Please Malfoy; you couldn't hurt me if you tried. Just give me the pleasure of fighting the real you. Not what you pretend to be."

"Taglioapre" Hermione felt her skin cut open just below her ribs. She winced slightly; He had cut open the exact place where an old battle scar had healed just a few months before. She Forgot about it and raised her wand.

"Inginocchiarsi." Malfoy fell hard on his knees, Hermione keep the spell concentrated on him so he couldn't rise back up. "Locomotor armour" she whispered and sent the metal man flying towards Lucius, it crashed into him before he could do anything to stop it. She finally released Lucius from her spell and he stood up as fast as he could, blood running from the big gash on his cheek bone stood out on his pale complexion. Malfoy touched it lightly, and she saw fury cross his eyes. This was what she wanted, the deranged psychopath she was used to.

"Incendio!" he screamed as she saw him draw circle with his wand, watching as the circle appeared round her feet, flames light up licking at her legs, nearly burning them. Looking back to Malfoy she saw his sneering face. Panicking she felt herself burning up, she had to put the flames out but she was drawing blanks. For the first time since they began the duel she looked out to their audience and saw the looks vary from thrill to terror. She looked at Lily who had panic all over her face and had grabbed onto James's hand; which he seemed pleased at. Then to Sirius who was throwing some very colourful words at Fletcher, trying to get him to take down the barrier so the fight could end; she gave a small smile at his Blossoming protectiveness. Of their own accord her eye's found Snape and she found him already staring directly at her. Feeling the flames burn higher she jumped and almost fell back into them. She said the first thing that came to her mouth.

"Freeze" She breathed a sigh of relief when they did. "Confringo!" she pointed her wand and the icy flames and the shattered into tiny ice cubes. Not wasting any time she threw spell after spell at Malfoy, several of them non verbal. He only managed to block two of her more powerful curses and he now laid on the floor his robes torn. She guessed he had about 3 broken ribs, his lip was cut, he had thorns growing from one leg and he was gasping for air due to the fact that she had taken his breath from him. Hermione frowned when he started to laugh.

"I'll give it to you that you're good Moreau, but I'm better" He bended to pointed his wand at her and shouted his spells with more anger than she had ever actually seen from the normally composed man. "Reducto, Breakeum, Expelliarmus" Hermione flew off her feet and was sent flying towards the opposite wall, which she promptly hit and now guessed she had a large cut on the left side of her face. A brittle snap in her fight forearm let her know his second spell had hit her. When her wand flew from her limp hand at the same time she knew it was his third.

"End of Duel! Lucius Malfoy is the winner" she herd Gibbons shout, a little too happy for her liking. 

The day that this match was over and Malfoy had won was the day she'd join Voldemort, and she really didn't want to do that. Pushing through the pain she stood up.

"Shut up gibbons you fool, this match isn't over in the slightest."

"It clearly is! Your wand arm is broken and suffice to say you don't even have a wand anymore." She winced at the girly shrieks he was making. She'd have to get her head checked out; maybe Malfoy had actually done some real damage.

"Didn't you hear me say SHUT UP!" she shouted and saw him screech something else but couldn't hear him anymore due to the silencing spell she'd put on him. She turned to Malfoy ignoring the amazed glances she was receiving. "I believe it's my turn. Sectumsempra!" she done all this while walking towards Malfoy, knowing that the curse wouldn't have much effect on him, it never did when used wandless. She watched as three or four more blood stains appeared through what was left of his robes. While he was still in pain she brought her hand up to his chest and whispered "luccicare" she shimmered through his body and came out the other side with both his and her own wand in her hand. Lucius promptly fell on the floor behind her. She looked at the wands in her hand. "Still think you're better Malfoy?" The only answer that she got was the heavy running of Gibbons and Fletcher coming to check the unconscious boy over.

* * *

Any spells that you don't recognise it's because I made them up. I'm not sure if the translation is right but it will do for now.  
For anybody who thinks this is out of character for Hermione you've got to remember that she is playing up to the role she's been given. All questions that you have will be answered in the next chapter.

Please review,  
XxDenniexX


	7. Never Imprison The Mind

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and company. **

**Chapter Seven: Never Imprison The Mind**

* * *

It had been a 3 days since the infamous 'take down of Lucius Malfoy', that's what the sixth years had been calling it and it quickly caught on. She hadn't yet managed to get through a whole meal or even walk through the corridor without receiving a pat on the back and some variation of "nice one Hermione", to be honest she'd rather have the death glares back. So she had stopped going to meals except for breakfast and had tried her best to avoid the crowds in the main corridors by taking the long route round, sometimes Remus would go with her and they'd talk about things they both found interesting. Remus had approached her the night after the duel in the common room and asked to speak to her, at first he was still sceptical about her, but after she answered some of his questions and had promised that she would teach him some of her magic he had given her a look that almost broke her heart. It was the look he always gave her back in her own time, the look that let her know that he trusted her and if push came to shove he would stand by her side no matter the consequences. She had cried herself to sleep that night with a heavy heart thinking of home.

Hermione had managed to avoid extreme contact with most people who wanted to talk to her, mainly by talking to lily through every mealtime and by shutting herself up in the room of requirement every evening. Nobody had managed to find her though she did suspect they knew where she was. She would have shut herself up in the library but she knew Snape would be in there lurking behind every corner waiting to pounce on her and launch a full scale interrogation. She had felt his eyes burn into her during every class they had and every breakfast she attended and she knew the reason why. She had used_ his_ spell. How could he have been so stupid? It had just fell from her lips in the moment she didn't even realise until she saw him look at her in questioning bewilderment. She had tried to reason with her mind that she couldn't avoid him forever, well at least until she could go home. She was eventually going to come head to head with him, and she had decided to do it tonight, she'd just get it over with, it couldn't be worse than ripping off the proverbial band aid right? It was just a coincidence that she really needed to go to the library anyway.

Hermione was startled from her revive when she felt a fourth year Griffindor give her a hearty pat on the back. She had the good sense to smile at the boy; he seemed to have a faint tint of pink in his cheeks. "I think I'm going to murder the next person who does that, or at least rip their hand off." She said to Sirius through her smile, why he had decided to sit beside her today was beyond her. He would normally sit next to Carmen, who was currently giving her the finger; well it was under the table but Hermione didn't need to have x-ray vision to see the gesture reflected in her eyes too.

"That's just slightly extreme don't you think? Besides it's only because they admire you; you're something of a hero to the younger population." Sirius gave her a cheeky smile to which her answer was an undignified snort. "Well regardless of what you might think Miss Hermione, it was still an impressive show of magic, even though some of those spells could be called into question. I'm sure Malfoy would give his left arm to know that last little trick of yours, hell I'd give both my Ba..."

"That's enough Padfoot, please don't finish that sentence." Lily had stolen the words right from Hermione and the other boy's mouths.  


"Aw come on Lils, even you have to admit you're dying to know how it works and don't even get me started on that little twinkle that was in Remus's eye throughout the whole duel, I could practically hear his mind working its way through his inventory of knowledge on spells." Hermione saw the blush creeping on both Lily's and Remus's faces and a though struck her.

"I'll teach you all if you'd like?." They all looked at her with sparkles of promise in their eyes, it reminded her oddly of Crookshanks when she'd open his can of food. She held back a small giggle. "On one condition." At this they all lost the sparkle, except Remus.

"What's the condition?" she saw his face and knew that he'd agree no matter what the condition was, his thirst for knowledge nearly matched her own. She was in no position to not teach him anyway, because Remus had taught her.

"I don't know, when I need a favour though, you better all remember that I let you in on my secrets." She was bound to need a few favours in this time so she wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to create some. She saw them all look between each other they all seemed to silently agree upon a decision. She missed that kind of friendship where words weren't required, it was the same relationship she had with Harry and Ron. She had to stop thinking these kinds of thoughts, she was already drained emotionally as well as physically, and she doubted she had much left to give.

"We'll agree to that. So when do we start?" Sirius had become the voice for the group once again. She looked at him and brought her figure to her chin and tapped at in contemplation.

"If Memory serves me right then I believe we all have last period off today?" She watched them all nod, and was angry to note that she was right, they all had it off, even peter. She'd have to find a way to get rid of him later. "That's settled then, we'll meet in the room of requirement. You Mr Lupin need to come with me, we have a class to get to." She grabbed his arm and pulled him from his seat. She missed the looks passed between James and Sirius.

"Well Prongs mate, this should be interesting, don't you agree?"

"Yes Padfoot, I think it shall" Lily saw the gleam in their eyes; she knew that look all too well.

"I don't want you two planning anything! I don't think you're best to get on the wrong side of this one."

"Oh Lily babe, we're not the ones doing the planning." She snorted at James and swatted away his hand from her leg.

"I'm not your 'babe'. Come on peter let's get to class." She stalked from the great hall not even caring that peter was miles behind her. That boy really irked her sometimes, though she did wonder what he meant by saying that they weren't the ones planning. She'd have to stoop to their level if she was to find out.

**-- -- Break -- --**

"You've got to be kidding me." Hermione mumbled to herself as she made her way the room of requirement, there they all were just sitting on the ground lined up with their backs against the wall. They looked ready to be sent to the firing squad at any moment. "Um guys, what are you doing?" They all seemed to jump up when her voice reached their ear drums. Peter seemed to struggle more than the rest, due to the circumference of his entire body, Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose. She must have unconsciously been giving off signals of annoyance because once he was standing up he seemed to shrink away from her.

"We're waiting for you Hermione. We've been here for at least ten minutes; we thought you might have changed your mind about teaching us." That was Lily she didn't seem to have a choice but to speak up because nobody else would. _Are they scared of me? What on earth for? _Hermione couldn't help but feel uncomfortable for a moment but soon shook it off and promised herself she'd ask Lily about it later tonight.

"Well I am here now so let's go in shall we? You really shouldn't be sitting out here like that, what if a teacher saw you? Next time if I'm behind just ask Hogwarts for somewhere to train and it will provide it." She paced in front of the wall three times repeating the same thing in her head. _I need a room to teach magic and not be found out. _The door appeared and they all filed into the room, it was exactly what she had in mind. There were dummies in one corner ready to be beaten upon, and in another corner was a medical looking bed, she smiled inwardly at this because she had the perfect usage for it next lesson. The others had notice the bed as well and were giving it uneasy glances from the corner of their eyes. For the life of her Hermione couldn't understand why they were so worried about this, they were the ones that had asked for it after all. Giving it no more consideration she immediately went into teacher mode and faced the other four. "Let's get on with it then. I think I just want to see how good you are at duelling in this lesson, just to get a rough idea of what we need to work on in the next few, and then we'll get onto the juicy stuff. Okay?" They all nodded their agreement. "How about James you duel Remus, Sirius you duel Peter and then I'll go with Lily. Is that okay?" They all paired off, the boys seemed to have looks of relief on their face and Lily had gone blank and had shaking hands. She grabbed her hand and took her off to the corner. Looking into the other girls' eyes she couldn't help but smile. "Hey Lily, what's up with you? Why do you look so scared?" She watched the girl open and close her mouth several times. She finally managed to stumble out an answer which took Hermione by surprise and she nearly stumble backwards by it.

"You're not going to hurt me are you?" It was like the knife stabbed in her heart was twisting to cause her more pain. She felt so betrayed by the question, how could Harry think she'd hurt him? Hermione caught herself in thought. _This isn't Harry Hermione, it's just his eyes. This is Lily and Lily has every right to be cautious of you, she hasn't even known you for two weeks. _She managed to pull her senses together enough to give Lily an answer albeit with a croaky voice from the momentary hurt.

"No Lily I won't hurt you." She couldn't stomach looking at the girl anymore so walked back towards the boys. Her mind had blocked the whole incident and put it behind the protection barrier she'd formed. "James and Remus you can start now." She watched for 5 minutes as thee shot hexes and curses at each other. Both were extremely poor with their wand technique, Remus slightly better but only by a fraction. After James had lost to Remus's Expelliarmus she stepped in and told them what they were doing wrong. Then Sirius and Peter were up. It went without saying that peter lost, he was pathetic. Sirius took him down with a Reducto after barley more than a minute. Hermione had to give the plump boy some credit though; he had managed to stay conscious after he had hit his head. Again she stepped in and told them both what they were doing wrong, Sirius wasn't taking it serious and it was getting on her nerves so she gave up with the pair of them and moved onto Lily.

She watched as the girl hesitated and then shot a jelly legs jink at her. She quickly reflected it and threw her own spell. Lily was entirely too slow for Hermione's liking, she had barely managed to put some protection up before it was too late. She decided to use it to her advantage and threw hex after jinx and curse at Lily. Panic was written all over her face and shone brightly in her green eyes, she managed to dissolve the first two but the third hit her full in the chest and she flew back just like peter before. Hermione lowered her wand and went to get Lily off the floor; she extended her hand and pulled her up. "I'd bet on anything that you know more spells than any of the boys but you're just too slow on the defensive. You have to be ready to protect yourself from anything. Learn some powerful protection spell and you'll be a formidable foe. Well start on them next lesson okay Lily?" The girl nodded with a silly little smile on her face which in turn made Hermione smile. She had enjoyed it. Releasing the girls hand she stepped backwards and swayed on the spot. Her head was pounding and she felt herself drifting into unconsciousness only to be brought back by firm arms grabbing her. She felt as if something was evading her body, she was losing something that she needed and it scared her.

"Whoa there Hermione, just breathe slow and steady." She concentrated on the voice she couldn't distinguish who it belonged to but it was either Remus's or James's. She tried to breathe but found that it pained her to inhale, after minutes of the pain she felt normal and could stand by herself. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had a sense of de-ja-vu, like she knew this feeling, but she couldn't place it to any particular memory. Opening her eyes she saw the worried faces of the five and gave them a small smile of reassurance shaking off the residue effects left behind. "Sorry about that guys, it's just a bit of dizziness, no need to worry." Lily gave her a strange look but let it slip for the moment. "Well I think that will do for today don't you. We'll meet here next week at the same time okay?" The boys nodded and Remus spoke up.

"Are you sure you're okay Hermione? That looked like more than a dizzy spell?" She waved a hand in the air as if knocking the question away.

"Yes yes, I'm fine. Now get going all of you, we're done for today." He gave her a cautious look before he turned with the boys to leave the room and into the corridors. Hermione felt a hand placed gently on her upper arm.

"Hermione that was not a dizzy spell and you know it. You've been ill ever since lessons started and it seems more prominent since your duel with Malfoy, maybe you should go to the infirmary just to get checked over. You never know that bastard Malfoy might have hit you with something dangerous." She shook her head firmly, the worst Malfoy had done to her was cause a few cuts and bruises some of which still laid on her skin. But Lily did have a point; she had felt herself slowly becoming worse since the duel, maybe it was connected. She'd have to keep an eye on herself, not that she needed to; Lily was apparently already doing that for her.

"I'm fine Lily I promise you; it's just my body attempting to right its self to this world." She felt the girls hand drop from her arm and saw her walk out the door but not before she informed Hermione that she'd do some research on it tomorrow. Hermione watched the red head leave and gave a heavy sigh to the empty room. It seemed to understand, and in front of Hermione appeared a rich Mahogany table, a model of the Hogwarts library was sitting on top of it. She gave a smile at it and wondered to herself how Hogwarts always knew what she wanted, the place really was magical. She set off out the door still feeling uneasy in her stomach.

**-- -- Break -- --**

Severus had waited three days for this moment and now that it was here he didn't know how to approach it. He couldn't just go over there and start shouting; this needed to be kept a secret. Well he guessed it was no longer a secret, but still he didn't wish for the general population to know. Now was the time he wished he had some people skills, now was the time he wished he knew how to socialise. Blocking everything outside of him, he plastered a sneer on his face and made his way towards her. She was sitting alone in the back of the library will parchment around her, some of it was blank and other bits had no room for a fly left on them. She seemed to be deep in concentration her eyes scrunched up with a look of pain written on her face. He mentally slapped himself he didn't have time to asses every inch of the girl or what was around her, it was nearly curfew and he had to confront her. He stopped in front of her and her eyes snapped up to him. The look of pain subsided to the dread that was now in the forefront. _Ah so she isn't that ignorant of what she's done. _

"Look as much as it would be my delight to answer your questions I'm really not feeling up to it at the moment." He just stood there staring blankly at the girl, he needed o get this over with now. And this was the best time for him, what she wanted didn't matter. "Please just go away." Her voice nearly broke with the effort of getting the words out. Hermione had been in here for over 2 hours doing her homework and she felt terrible. She'd completely forgotten about Snape and all his questions, she knew she owed him the answers but she didn't have the energy. She could barely talk or keep her eyes open it cost her too much.

"Just tell me how you knew that curse. Nobody knows that curse." He tried to give her his most intimidating glare but it went unnoticed due to Hermione's closed eyes. After a stretched silence he watched as she drug her arm up and place several bits of parchment in her bag leaving the books strewn across the table in a mess. She had to steady herself on the table and used it as a support to help her stand up. He saw her visibly shake with the effort of it and noticed the thin near invisible sheet of sweat across her forehead, but still he needed his answers. "Moreau, how did you know it? Tell me." The lights suddenly went out and he realised it must be past curfew, he wouldn't be able to see if it wasn't for the moonlight shining through the windows. He saw her smile; it would have illuminated her face if she wasn't so deathly pale.

"I suppose it wouldn't do me any good to say that I can't tell you." Hermione felt like she could literally die on the spot. She saw him mouth the word 'no' so she tried to walk away only to feel herself fall into the handsome if not scary boys arms. She just wanted to go to her bed; she needed some place to go to sleep and fall out of this world in. She would never have guessed that that place would just so happen to be in his arms and cradled against his body as he carried her to the hospital wing. Snape for the life of him wouldn't be able to get the feeling of her frail body against his out of his head for weeks. At the moment though all he was concerned about was the fact that her breathing was slipping away and had no idea why. He prayed to the gods that Madam Pomfrey was still awake; he didn't care if he never got an answer as long as another innocent girl didn't die because of him.

**-- -- Break -- --**

"No. You're not seeing her until she wakes up." Madam Pomfrey gave all four of them firm glares. They had been coming by every day to beg her to let them see Miss Granger, Moreau to them.

"Please? With a cherry on top" Sirius gave the Mediwitch his best award worthy smile and puppy dog eyes. Nobody could resist it, even the protective woman. "You never know having her friends around might help Hermione recover from whatever is wrong with her." He flashed another bright smile. Bingo, there it was, the softening of the matrons eyes and small sigh escaping her lips.

"Okay. I'll be back in 10 minutes and if you're not gone by then I'm banning you all." All five of them rushed pass her and behind the curtains that closed off Hermione's bed. All five of them stood around the bed staring at their friend. She looked different; she looked more relaxed than she ever had since they'd know her. Lily looked to all of the boys who in turn looked at each other and they knew they were all thinking the same thing. Hermione was waiting for death to answer the door she'd just knocked on for the third morning in a row.

"Hey Hermione, it's Lily, the boys are with me as well, peter couldn't come though; something or other about potions. We've been ever so worried about you; Pomfrey wouldn't let us in until now." It was a credit to Lily how worried she was that she'd completely forgotten to use the matron's title. "I told you that you should have come here straight away and not a second you land in here in this condition." Lily Wiped at a tear that had fallen and grabbed the other girl's hand, ignoring that it felt like an ice cold lake. Lily felt James put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly; she brought her other hand up to cover his.

"Hey listen Hermione just wake up okay. I need a pretty girl by my side to deter Carmen away, she's driving me insane. Oh and I miss you."

"Nice one Sirius, I'm sure that will encourage her to come back to us."

"Oh shut up Remus, just because you have a crush on her." Remus took in a sharp breath.

"I do not have a crush on her Sirius. Anyways better her than one of your little fu..." They were both cut short of their argument from the banshee scream coming from the fuming fire haired girl

"SHUT UP! Don't you two have any respect? Why are you so concerned about yourselves? You don't even realise that our friend has been in a coma for three days and she doesn't show any signs of improvement. Madam Pomfrey is even scared for her. They won't tell us what's wrong with her and here you two are arguing at her bedside about who has better taste in women! You're revolting! I hope Hermione can forgive you when or if she wakes up because I wouldn't if it was me!" With that said she stormed out from the hospital with tears falling down her face. James turned to give the other boys glares.

"She's right you know." With that he rushed after the girl he loved, hoping he could ease her sorrow and grief. Both boys had their heads bowed in shame and mumbled to the unconscious girl their apologies and best wishes before hastily retreating from the hospital, well aware that the agreed ten minutes were up. They left behind a recovering girl who hadn't felt their presence or heard their words.

**-- -- Break -- --**

Severus had meant to visit her but he just hadn't had the time. He'd been summoned twice in one week and barley had time to finish his school work the other half of the time. He was currently finishing off his Supper and listening to Lucious babble about something or other, to be honest half of the time he just blocked the deranged boy out. It was throughout this one sided conversation that Severus had managed to half convince himself that it had nothing to do with him what happened to the girl. That he had no right to go see her tonight but the other side of him was putting up a good fight, pressuring him to visit her for just five minutes. He was after all the one who had taken her there in a mad rush of panic and worry. _Just do it after curfew, put them sneaky skills of yours to a good use for once and slip in undetected by anyone. She won't even know you're there for Merlin's sake! Besides you know you care about what happens to her, you remember the feeling of her body against yours don't you?_ He gave a Silent growl to himself; he found it extremely off putting that his own treacherous mind was using black mail against him. He gave in and promised to visit her later that night, what harm could he do?

"Severus are you listening?" he saw Lucious hand wave in front of his eyes.

"Yes, of course I am Lucious."

**-- -- Break -- --**

It was confirmed she was officially trapped, and in her own mind no less. How long she had been in here running around she had no idea. If she had to guess she'd say a day at the most. It was a strange sensation to be trapped in one's own mind. She could walk around and through different section of her mind and find that every memory or scrap of knowledge was almost existent and alive, she stand in front of it like a movie screen and watch it unfold. While she had been searching she'd even found a repressed memory or two. She realised that even in her mind she was organised, everything was sorted by dates, relativity, time, age, subject, people involved etc. She knew she was able to order her thoughts when somebody was using Legilimency on her but to know that it was this clean and precise by nature disturbed her slightly. She'd been trying to look through her knowledge trying to find a way out; she came back fruitless and annoyed. She'd resigned herself to either having outside intervention or being trapped for a long long while. She hoped that it wouldn't be the latter. Needing something to entertain herself with she skipped her way over to the child hood memories. She smiled as she watched herself fall off a bike only to get up and stamp her foot on the ground. After the third stomp she watched the next door neighbours cat turn pink and jump into her arms. She was flicking to the next memory when she felt a presence around her. She jumped up and spun around checking all the surrounding space. _Nothing, there's nothing there Hermione._ She shook it off and settled herself back on the floor only to feel it again.

"Hello?" she knew it was silly to call out to her own mind but it was her best plan of attack, she really wanted to leave this place. She almost felt a little twinge of sadness when nobody answered, but she still felt the presence, it was familiar somehow. Like they'd meet in a different time and place, she was sure this person could help her. She left her memories behind and closed the door on them to find herself in the darkness of her mind. She put a lot of effort into trying to get her unconscious body's mind to send out some sort of signal that she needed help. It paid off when she felt something cold invade her mind only to be stopped by her protection barriers. "Oh bugger, I forgot about them" she said more to herself rather than the invader. She quickly took them down with a wave of her minds arm. The body stepped out of the dark shadows and Hermione had never been so relieved in her life to see another person, even if it was Snape. "Thank Merlin. I thought I'd be stuck here forever, it's troubling being trapped in my own mind." She was about to let out an irrelevant speech about the whole experience but was interrupted.

"Moreau? What's going on? Why haven't you woken up already? Madam Pomfrey will go berserk if she finds out you've been hiding in here." She saw him look around at the never ending blackness "where ever here is."

"Right, sorry we're in my in-between space. Normally I put some nasty trap in here but evidently I've taken it away. Anyways I'm not hiding in here, I can't get out." She saw him raised an image projected eyebrow, he almost looked impressed at her ability to control her mind. He seemed to take his time thinking about it and walked around to the door behind her. "Memories. No, you can't get through without passing the trap, seeing as there is no trap there's no way you're getting in there." She answered his unasked question; she could practically hear his own thought screaming in her own mind. "Would you just help me out please?"

"Do you know what's wrong with you Moreau? I mean physically, with your body?" he ignored her. She furrowed her brows together. _Did he know what was wrong with me?_"Yes" Was her simple answer. He seemed to grow annoyed at her short answer and motioned for her to go on. She guessed that he wouldn't help her out unless she gave him some answers. "I'm tired physically, emotionally, mentally, magically. My body needs time to rest, to right itself. I just hope it doesn't take too long, I've got classes to attend." She saw him squirm slightly like he had some bad news for her. This boy was like an open book in here, he couldn't hide his feelings. "What? What's wrong? How long have I been in here Severus?" She didn't even register the fact that his name had fell from her lips or the curious look he gave her.

"8 days." He braced himself for the scream of horror he was sure would come. Only it didn't. He looked at her face, it had turned into a blank mask, and he guessed that it wasn't a good thing.

"Can you help me back to my body? Please?" She really just wanted to get out of here.

"I don't know, maybe your body needs longer to recover, you might need to wait this one out and allow nature to do as it will." Hermione glared at him and he watched her face grow dark.

"I can keep you here too you know. I can trap you in here with me. Would you like that? To be stuck in this desolate place? Not a soul to talk to? Hell, even I wouldn't talk to you, I'd trap you in a little 

box and store you away like a tattered old doll." He could see she wasn't kidding, Grumbling to himself her gave it a quick think to come up with a plan.

"I can come and go freely at my will, if you allow me to." He shot her a look but continued. "So theoretically I could take you with me. It would be just like taking a few memories, only more... human" He seemed to decide on that word, and it made Hermione happy to know that she wasn't in fact a creation of her own imagination. "I suppose it would be straining though and painful." She agreed with him, but she really didn't have any other option than to try. She voiced her thoughts and awaited instruction. "Well I suppose we'll have to have some form of contact" She made no move to touch him. _Was he really that revolting that she couldn't even touch a projected image of himself?_ "Just hold my hand Moreau, it should suffice for this." He snapped in annoyance. She swiftly placed her dainty hand in his larger one. She became hype sensitive to the fact that his hands were rough and surprisingly warm. Her hand seemed to take control of its self and rubbed her thumb over the back of his. Later when she would look back on this she would wonder to the fact that she could actually feel every crack in his skin.

Severus looked down at their entwined hands curiously; they seemed to strangely fit together. When he heard her whisper beside him he snapped back to his senses. "Please let this work". He closed his eyes and concentrated on getting her back. He had been right when he said it would be straining and painful, every part of his body ached when he came out the other side and was back in his body. For a moment he thought it hadn't worked but on closer inspection of the girl in bed he realised it had. She was no longer whiter than the sheets she lay in and she had a ghost of a smile on her lips. Severus smiled at this, knowing he had been the one to help her gave him great satisfaction, more than he would care to admit. He noticed the sunlight around the room, it was a shock change from the moonlight it had been before her breached her mind. _Time really had passed slowly for her the entire week._ He tried to leave the closed off section only to be pulled back by the hand gripping his own. He lifted her slim fingers one by one from around his hand and laid her hand softly on the bed.

"You're a most curious creature Moreau." With those few words he departed the hospital wing before anybody came and noticed him by her side.

* * *

Sorry it took such a while to update guys. I've been swamped with work and what not. Plus my two week vacation didn't exactly help me along. My deepest apologies.  
I think I kind of lost track at the end there but it'll do. I'm too tired to mend it anyways.

Review  
-- dennie x


	8. Hey you

**Disclaimer:**I **DO NOT** own anything. **J.K.Rowling owns Harry Potter and company. **

**Chapter Eight: "Hey you"**

* * *

For the two days after Snape had 'rescued' her, Hermione had drifted in and out of consciousness. Sometimes she would be awake for less than a minute before madam Pomfrey would almost violently shove some dreamless sleep down her throat. She'd had it with sitting in bed, she just wanted to get up and walk around, she felt as if she'd become bed ridden for the rest of her life if she couldn't. Forcing herself awake she cracked open one eye and was met with darkness, she guessed it was a little after midnight, but then again she'd had no concept of time for a week and a half. She gave a groan of frustration and hoped that madam Pomfrey wouldn't hear it. Thankfully the Mediwitch didn't come running with a glass full of that foul purple liquid that was dreamless sleep; she did however come running all the same.

"Oh Miss Granger you're awake, and thank heavens you're not mumbling nonsense like you were before." _I was? I must have been worse than I thought._ The Mediwitch took out her wand and ran a few tests over Hermione; she tutted at every result she received. "Miss Granger do you know what's wrong with you?" She gave the girl a stern look which gave Hermione no decision but squirm.

"Y-yes." She squeaked and paused to get her voice back to normal; it was uneven with disuse. "Just about everything I guess. I know most of the problem is my magic, it's dangerously low, and I wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't do the simplest of spells. I've exhausted it from all the magic I've been using lately, especially the wandless stuff with Malfoy."

"Ah yes, he was practically a pile of bones and flesh when he arrived in here that week. It caused quite a controversy, or so I'm told. Never the less Miss Granger it shouldn't have caused you that much unease to be in a coma for the better part of 9 days." The middle aged woman was now scribbling something down on her chart.

"Well while I was in that little coma I had a lot of time to think about it and I came up with various answers" She paused to think that she really hated the word coma. "I'm assuming the head master told you about my circumstances yes?" at the woman's' brief nod she continued. "I think it's because of that. My body is trying to adapt to this new time, but it's confused, I mean I'm in the same place but yet a totally different one. I remember in my fourth year when I had been using a time turner for the school year, it drained me a lot back then as well but never to this extent. It's because of the years I've travelled, it's far worse than the minutes I'm used to." She didn't pause to explain about the Illegal use of a time turner in her fourth year, she was more concerned about getting every bit of information out of her mouth before she could realise how crazy it would sound coming from anyone but herself. "Think of it like this. A muggles life source is their energy; if they over exert themselves of find themselves under great stress then it takes a toll on the energy levels. But in a witch or wizard their life source is their magic. Now I've put myself, and in turn my magic under all types of stress so much so that it was too much so it just put me in a magical coma which I couldn't escape from without a little help. I hate to admit this as well but I haven't had an appetite since I've got here." She could see the clogs working in Madam Pomfrey's head to absorb what she'd just said, and with a nod she accepted it and moved on.

"Yes when Mr Snape brought you in here he said you were lighter than a four year old, and after I checked you over every bone in your body was sticking out. I've been giving you nutrient pills and potions but it doesn't compare to real food. I'm putting you on a strict diet for the next few weeks Miss Granger." Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of Snape, she owed him a lot. Sensing her question the Mediwitch shook her head. "No dear. He hasn't been by to see you the entire time. Your friends have been down here every day though; it caused Miss Evans quite a bit of grief. She was in tears everyday saying it was all her fault and she should have brought you here earlier. I told her that it had nothing to do with her but she had none of it." Hermione felt a stab of pain in her heart, she wasn't sure if it was because of Snape or Lily. "I haven't told any of them what was wrong with you. It's up to you to decide what you'll tell them." Hermione nodded and decided that she would have to make up a good story. She gave an involuntary yawn and watched Madam Pomfrey scuttle away probably to get some dreamless sleep potion. In the few seconds it had taken the woman to get the purple liquid Hermione had fell into a naturally peaceful slumber.

**-- -- Break -- --**

Hermione was forced to spend another week in the hospital under Madam Pomfrey's watchful eyes. She had been confined to the dull and drab ward all the time except the one day that the elderly witch had let her attend and evening meal; after Hermione's incessant pleading all day. Only Hermione had returned with a smashing headache to which madam Pomfrey hadn't been the least bit sensitive to, telling her it was her own fault. Hermione would have gone insane if it hadn't been for the marauders and Lily, they were her life line to the world outside of this prison. Snape hadn't visited her again, even at night she hadn't felt his presence. She felt sorry about that fact as she still needed to thank him. When she got out of this place in exactly 43 minutes she would track him down and tell him how grateful she was. Madam Pomfrey had been keeping an eye on her and finally deemed her stable enough physically to leave. Her magic was back to some resemblance of normal, some days it would be low while others it would be off the other end of the spectrum.

Madam Pomfrey was bustling around the ward checking on various patients; apparently there had been an accident in the third year potions class. The Mediwitch had stopped tending to them long enough to place fresh clothes on the end of Hermione's bed, only to hurry straight back to a boy who was crying out in pain. Hermione ran to the wards bathroom to freshen up, she was desperate to wear anything other than the white airy bed gown. On top of the pile lay a pair of denim jeans, she pulled them on with ease. Even with a whole week of what Hermione had dubbed as 'the Pomfrey diet' she still wasn't back to a healthy weight. She grabbed the black jumper and pulled it over her head; she had rolled it half way down when she noticed the large gash below her ribs. She remembered Malfoy had re-opened it in their duel, it had taken over a year to heal when she had received it last; she guessed it would be no different this time. With a groan she pulled the jumper over the weeping wound and hastily slung the cloak over her shoulders. After she had put on her shoes and checked herself over in the mirror she made her way back to the bed she had lived in for half the month, she was surprised to find the headmaster sitting on the edge of it.

"Sir?" she queried from behind him and watched as he got off the bed to face her. He dug in his pockets and handed out a yellow sweet to her. She declined shaking her head.

"Poppy tells me you are ready to be released today?" it wasn't a question so she didn't answer, he 

seemed fine with that. "Thought I'd come down and personally check on our resident time traveller. How are you feeling Miss Granger?"

"Slightly Nauseous, but other than that elated. I haven't been able to do anything fun at all this week. I just want to snuggle up in front of the common room fire with Jane Austen."

"Ah yes, in my youth I found myself incapacitated several times with nothing to do but count ceiling tiles." He seemed to drift off with a smile on his face; apparently he was fond of these memories. She started packing up her 'get well soon' cards; the unexpected movement seemed to bring him back to the present. "Poppy requested that I speak to you about the reason why you found yourself to be here in the first place. She feels that you don't understand the consequences of what you're going through and how it will affect you." Hermione froze and gave an involuntary shudder, his words eerily reminded her of the sex/menstruation talk her parents had held with her. She tried to will away the blush that was currently setting up camp on her face.

"Sir I understand that I need to keep a better eye on myself and my magic and I've promised her I won't let it happen again. I've got to come by once a week for checkups just to satisfy her." She heard the bitterness in her voice and realised that even in this world she felt resentment for not being treated as an adult who could look after herself.

"Miss Granger you have to be aware of when your magic is on a high level. It was recorded one day as higher than my own; and I pride myself on being one of the best wizards in this world." Hermione had to physically stop herself from screaming aloud that she wasn't from this world. "Do you understand what I'm saying Miss Granger?" she gave him a queer look; she'd known her magic had always been very potent but it have never touched anywhere near his. He placed a wrinkly hand on her arm and looked into her young eyes with his weary ones. "Hermione you could blink at your friends and find in the next instant they are motionless on the floor. I'm sorry to put it in that context but I feel it's the only way I can get through to you. You have to be aware."

It took a while for what he'd said to sink in, but when it did she felt her eyes well up with salty tears. After she had shed copious amounts of tears and had endured the elderly mans rubbing on her back, the sobs subsided and she was left with hiccups, a wet face and nasty thoughts. _If I'm so dangerous why don't you just lock me up like the beast I am? It would be preferable to killing the people I love. _Weather she'd inadvertently said it out loud or the headmaster had read her mind was subsided to his answer.

"Miss Granger I would never dream of locking you up and you shouldn't either. You are not a beast, simply a girl trying to deal with the cards life handed her, though some would argue that they are one in the same." She had to give a small smile and chuckle, this man had always had a way with words, and she supposed that it was what made him so loved. She could physically feel the weight lift from her heart and felt as if she could live with herself once again.

She sat with Dumbledor for ten minutes while he explained everything to her in more depth. She'd managed to eat three of the yellow sweets that he'd tried to give her before; she had always wondered why he'd insisted on keeping them readily available, now she guessed she knew. They were for overly emotional students who needed the comfort that only came with sugary sweetness. Dumbledor left abruptly only to be replaced with a simultaneous hug consisting of three boys and one girl; the other plump boy hung awkwardly in the background. Hermione found herself maliciously thinking that he would be the one exception to her not wanting to blink any one dead.

"Your rescue party has arrived milady, would care to leave this sterile place?" Hermione nodded her head with much vigour and grabbed Sirius's offered arm while Remus picked up her loose belongings. As they walked back to the common room she noticed James and Lily's intertwined hands, she made a mental note to ask the girl about it later. Looking at them made her mind skip to Snape and the thank you she owed him. She smiled at how holding hands made her think of the dark boy. She wiped the silly smile off her face before anyone noticed, but her mind still remained on him and the moment they'd shared in her mind.

**-- -- Break -- --**

Hermione woke up to the tornado of girls, hairspray and lip gloss that was currently spinning around her dorm room. She groaned out loud and pulled the covers back over her head, at least back in the hospital she could wake to the still calmness which she preferred. She felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and then violently shaking her, with another groan she stuck one eye out the top of her blanket to inspect who dared invade her personal space. In her groggy state Hermione found it hard to place a name to the blond haired beauty, it was something like Tess, or maybe it was Jess? Never the less she gave Tess/Jess the best glare she could muster but it didn't have the desired effect to make her scurry away, instead she started talking.

"Hey, me and Darla were just wondering if you needed our help?" She made a gesture towards the other girl; Hermione noticed that the brunette was the source of all the hairspray currently pledging war on her lungs.

"What do you mean do I need your help? On what exactly?" Tess/Jess looked from Hermione back to Darla who nodded her head.

"Just tell her Jess, it would be cruel not to." _Ah, so it was Jess._

"Well last night you were kind of tossing about the bed a lot and screaming 'Nooo' and that you 'didn't want it to happen like that', we all just assumed that it was your parents you were dreaming about so none of us had the heart to wake you up." Hermione had to wait a minute for her brain to clasp on what they were saying. _Her parents? Oh yeah the cover story, they died of course._ She had the sense to look off in the distance and make her eyes well up. When the awkwardness had passed Jess continued. "Because you were tossing around so much you kind of um well you... just look in the mirror." She really wished the girl would just spit it out, but she resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to get up anyway. Hermione stood in front of the mirror and inspected her appearance. _Ten Fingers, Ten Toes, still too flat stomach, Same rounded chest and...  
_  
"Oh dear Merlin!" She brought her hand up to the bomb site that was currently residing on top of her head; her hair looked like one big knot. She barely had time to inspect it further before Darla spoke from beside her.

"We have a half hour before it's time to go so we'll have to get to work straight away."Before she could resist the girl's intentions she found herself seated with lines of products in front of her. She imagined that this is what it would be like in a muggle hair salon, if she ever went in one; which she wouldn't. By the time they were finished 20 minutes later Hermione felt at the end of her tether, she had been pulled in all directions and felt as if she had suddenly acquired asthma from all the spray they'd used. As she looked back into the mirror she had to admit that her hair had never looked so smooth and touchable, but it certainly wasn't worth the hassle every day, but once every month wouldn't hurt. The girls came and looked in the mirror behind her and smiled, they were obviously proud of their handy work.

"Well we've overcome the odds Jess and tamed the untameable." Darla said as she pawed one of the dolly ringlets.

"I agree Darla" The girls both clapped their hands together and squealed in joy, it was all Hermione could do to not cover her ears and block them out. "Right you've got ten minutes left to get dressed and have some breakfast." The girls shouted back to her as they left the dorm to go eat, leaving Hermione rushing around to grab her school uniform on and rush down to breakfast. It wouldn't do to skip breakfast on her first day out of the hospital, Madam Pomfrey would surely notice and she'd find herself landed right back in that white washed place.

It was 6o'clock and Hermione still hadn't had time to find Snape and thank him for what he'd done for her. The boys, Lily included, had decided to keep her all to themselves so she could have some 'fun' in the common room. She'd been forced to agree mainly due to the fact that they wouldn't let her go anywhere without them; even Lily had felt the need go to the toilet with her. So here she was spending her Friday evening doing something she had no passion for. Wizard's chess, honestly she thought it was the most barbaric game she'd ever known; and that's not even mentioning that she had firsthand experience at being a real life pawn back in her first year. She watched as one of James's pawns was smashed by Sirius's knight and winced as she remembered the whole fiasco of it.

"Would you mind terribly if I went to library guys? I've got so much catching up to do." She asked them all at once. She'd had it with this game and their over worrying about her health; she felt like she'd crack at the seams if she didn't get away soon.

"I thought we agreed to spend the night in here together?" she didn't answer Sirius because she didn't trust her mouth not to wail that she didn't agree to anything of the sort! He seemed to notice the silence so spoke up again. "Okay just give us a moment Hermione and we'll come with you. We've all got work we need to catch up on." Hermione rolled her eyes but restrained herself from grinding her teeth.

"I'm sorry I don't think I made myself clear. What I meant was that I'm going to the library by myself; nobody else is coming. Do you understand?" She watched the hurt flitter through their faces and she gave a deflated sigh. "I'm sorry guys it's just that I feel like you think I'm going to die at any minute and you feel it your duty to make sure it doesn't happen by following me around twenty-four seven. Madam Pomfrey gave me a perfect bill of health, what happened was just a blip on my chart; I'm fine I promise you. There's no need for anybody to worry about me." Okay so it wasn't a perfect bill of health but she wasn't going to tell them that she was a ticking bomb of magic just waiting to happen.

"But Hermione we..."

"I know Lily, I know that you think it's your fault for not taking me in earlier, but even if you did all it would have done was give me a softer place to fall." _Not that Snape was uncomfortable to fall into mind you. _"I've been stuck in that hospital for weeks and when I finally get out you're denying me the one thing I want." She was prepared to grovel and she did. She fell to her knees and held her hands together praying to them. "Pleeeeeeease just let me go for tonight then I'm yours forever after." She looked at them with wide eyes and they all nodded their heads in consent. She hopped up and kissed them all, except Pettigrew, before fleeing from the fat lady's portrait. She left behind three bewildered boys and one slightly blushing girl.

Hermione skidded in front of the library doors and looked up at the clock to realise that it was ten minutes to 8; apparently time had decided to fly by today. She was about to push open the door when she realised her hand trembling, she panicked thinking that she was unwell again but when she felt the unfamiliar feeling of nervousness swimming around in her stomach she let out the breath she'd been holding. She took a moment to shake her body trying to will away the nerves; she had nothing to be nervous about right? It was only Snape she'd come here to see and he was hardly anything to be scared of. Shaking the last of it away she strode through the doors and landed eyes on him immediately; she headed straight towards him and watched as he walked away delving deeper into the rows of books. She frowned to herself; surely he had seen her head towards her? Maybe he just thought they needed some privacy so he was leading her away from stray ears. She followed him but stopped frozen when she saw his destination, she had the sense to hide herself behind a particularly dusty row of ageing books. There sitting comfortably in a chair was Lucious Malfoy in all his platinum glory. She could hear Snape greeting the other boy well enough that she could pick up his slightly annoyed tone.

"Lucius what can I do to help you?" Severus was most positively not in the mood for a chat with the blond haired boy.

"Severus I think we can discard with the pleasantries, I'm here for business only." Severus gracefully took a seat himself and nodded for the boy to continue. "I gather you've noticed the girl is out of the hospital wing?"

"Yes Lucius you saw her as well did I in lessons and meal time." He had a stone weight of dread settling in his stomach. Surely Lucius wasn't stupid enough to go after the girl twice, was he?

"It seems that our Lord has also taken an interest in the girl, something about being a powerful witch and that she'd be an asset to our side. My father has informed me that he's calling a meeting for his followers in Hogwarts tomorrow to discuss how best to convince her. I've also informed Ariel of this. If we can be the ones to accomplish this feat then we'll be rewarded."

"Lucius I don't think she'll come to us easy, she's got a strong will and her heart is always going to be with her family and friends. Her family being neutral and her friends being on the opposite side to us we don't have a chance in convincing her." Not to mention that he didn't want to be the one responsible for turning her innocence into clouded darkness. He sometimes wondered why he'd joined the Dark Lord himself but Lucius was no person to spill his doubt to.

"Are you questioning our Lord Severus?" They both stayed quiet while staring heatedly into the others eyes; Lucius let go after a minute and calmed down. "We'll change her if it's the last thing I do. We have our ways of persuasion; if we're lucky she'll take the bait and become one of us." Severus didn't speak the thought that it may well be the last thing he did if he crossed the girl. Lucius swept from his chair and turned to leave. "Until tomorrow Severus."

Hermione slipped further into the shadows of the bookcase when Lucius walked pass. She watched him stop for a second but he soon moved on muttering something about 'creepy books'. She had her back flat against the bookcase and was panting heavy, not from fright but more from the anger she felt towards Severus. He had agreed to it, he'd agreed to dam her to life of slavery and murder! Just like he'd done to himself! She was about to storm from the row of books and give him his worth when she realised how pathetic she was being. She wasn't angry at Severus, she was angry at the mad man some called a Lord; She couldn't escape his treacherous plans even in this time. She felt physically sick at the thought of following him, that snake was deluded if he thought she could ever be loyal to everything she despised. Hermione felt her anger turn into tears and blur her eye sight; it often happened this way when she feeling a strong emotion. She rubbed the heel of her palms into her eyes and willed the feelings away. Once the feeling was gone she found herself able to think straight. She took ten or more minutes figuring out what to do about the situation and she'd come up with a plan, a brilliant plan if she was being honest with herself. She looked around and thanked the rows of books; apparently this was a good little corner to make decisions in. She took her first steps towards Snape thinking she really needed to thank him, it was after all what she'd came here to do.

Severus was staring blankly at the words written on the ripped pages of the book he had when he saw something step from the shadows towards him. He knew immediately that it was her; she had a feel around her that somehow broke through his walls and crept into his soul; it was a feel that eased him, but he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. She sat in the chair that Lucius had vacated and smiled at him.

"Hey you." He found himself nearly smiling back at her odd greeting but had to settle for a stiff hello instead and waited for her to continue. "I thought I might find you here, though I must admit that seeing you reading un upside down wasn't quite how I imagined you." She pulled the book from his hands, turned it up the right way and closed it before placing it on the desk. "Something on your mind?" He looked into her eyes and realised that she was generally interested and wanted him to trust her enough to tell her. As much as Severus wanted to tell her, warn her, he couldn't; and it tore at his conscience.

"No." He had to keep his distance from this girl or it was guaranteed to end badly for both of them. "Was there something you need Moreau?" He saw the deflation in her eye but her smile still remained."

"Yes actually I wanted to know why you never came back I really wanted to thank you. I owe you a lot."

"You owe me nothing Moreau; it was just self preservation at wanting to get out of your head. It was never my place to be there in the first place. Now is that all? I believe it's time to pack up and get out before curfew." This wasn't going how she'd planned it at all, why was he being so defensive? She watched him shove his papers into his bag and she automatically sent his books back to their rightful shelf with a flick of her wand. He gave her a strange look before walking straight past her; it took her a few hurried paces before she was once again beside him matching him step for stride. She was determined to pay him what she owed whether he wanted her to or not. They were finally out of the sealed library when she grabbed his arm before he could storm away.

"Why are you being so defensive about this? I just want to thank you."

"I've told you Moreau you don't owe me anything." She watched him pinch the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath. "I don't want you to be in debt to me and regret doing something you wish you hadn't." She knew what he was talking about but waved her hand wildly in the air.

"I'm doing this because I want to, not because I owe anything to you." Before he had a chance to reply she flung her arms round his torso and reached her lips up to his cheek. "Thank you." She pressed her lips to his cheek and withdrew herself from his body. She turned away from his flushed face, which she imagined carried down his kneck all the way to his toes, and made her way back to Gryffindor common room. She didn't hear him compliment her new hair style as she rounded the corner.

**-- -- Break -- --**

Severus looked around and noticed half of the common rooms occupants inhale a sharp breath and clutch their forearms. He would have clawed at his own but he knew it would have done nothing to calm the burning. He joined the rest of them in gathering their cloaks and masks from their rooms, once he'd got everything he joined the mass of black and silver masked people currently waiting at the common room door. It somehow made him feel slightly defeated that the other slytherins didn't bat an eyelid towards them. Was it that much of a normal occurrence for them to not care? Then again maybe they knew it wouldn't be good on their health if they did make a scene. As they were joined by the last few robed boys they headed out towards the castle grounds. It was after curfew so there wouldn't be any students about but it was also too early for the teachers to patrol.

They reached it to the gates when Lucius abruptly stopped causing Severus to knock into his back. Once he'd righted his balance and knocked off the boy who had bumped into the back of him he brought himself beside Malfoy to see what was holding them up. He didn't even need to look into her face to know who it was because the nearly familiar feeling was creeping into his body once again.

Hermione had been waiting for them for the last half hour, and when they finally arrived she was starting to regret the whole plan. There was so many of them, about twenty-five in total, she could tell the majority were slytherins but she was proud to note there wasn't a single Gryffindor beside the traitor. She searched the silver masks and could immediately put faces to Snape Lucius and Pettigrew, the rest of them seemed to be just the mask they hid behind. She saw some try to hide themselves deeper into the black mass. _Cowards_, she thought to herself, _it's all very well following their 'Lord' in secrecy, but when it came down to being found out they'd throw their 'brothers' before themselves. _She saw nobody prepared to speak so she spoke herself.

"It's come to my attention that your Lord wants to have me on his side, and he's going to send his troops do his work. His troops being you." She added for anyone who was too stupid to catch on. "Tell him not to bother. You bunch of half wits couldn't manage if your life depended on it." She noticed one or two of them clench and aim their wands. She rolled her eyes at them and waved her hand sending their wands flying into her palm. "It really wouldn't bode well with your master if you killed me now would it?" Nobody answered, not that she'd expected them to. "You can also tell him that I'll meet with him in my own time and not before. Perhaps next Wednesday?"

She let go of the wands in her hand and they fell to the floor clattering on top of each other. Stepping over them she walked away from the group but not before she let Snape knew that she trusted him still. She reached her hand up and flicked some hair off her shoulder bringing her hand down she let it trail down Snapes arm and without anybody noticing she laced her fingers in-between his and delved into his mind for the briefest of seconds.

Snape tried his best not to shy away for her as she came towards him, hopefully she wouldn't even notice it was him. He felt the dread in his middle section increase as she decreased her speed beside him. She knew it was him and he knew it who was he trying to kid? She'd hate him for being this boy cover in robes and mask covering his face; she'd never trust him again. He felt her hand trail down his arm and over the mark that defaced his pale skin, it nearly killed him not to close his eyes and hang his head in shame. His fingers automatically laced around hers when she placed them between his. He wasn't expecting her to slip into his mind as well, but found that it also comforted him for the few milliseconds she was there before she walked away.

As he followed the others to the apparition point her quick greeting of "Hey you" ringed in his head, so did her projected cheeky smile. Severus took out his wand and sent himself to Riddle manor, where he was sure they'd all be receiving a dose of Cruatius for their incompetence at letting the girl find out the plan.

* * *

So there you go a nice glossy new chapter for you all. I was going to post this last night but my eyes were to fogged with images of sleep for me to be able to proof read it for mistakes. If there is any left then I'd be ever so inclined if you told me about them. Thanks.

As always ... **_R.E.V.I.E.W_**  
--Denniex

P.S. The whole hair thing was necessary I didn't stick it in there just to take up space. ... I promise.


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